The Council Has Spoken: Our Watcher’s Council Results

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

““We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the ground of their pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation.

The Ambassador [of Tripoli] answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.” – Thomas Jefferson, 1786 in a report to John Jay, then US Secretary of Foreign Affairs

“Liberty and freedom are so very precious that you do not fight and win them once and stop. They’re prizes awarded only to those peoples who fight to win them and then keep fighting eternally to hold them.” – WWI Medal of Honor winner Alvin York,from a speech in front of the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier on Memorial Day, 1941.

“I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.” – Alexis de Tocqueville, author of ‘Democracy In America.’

“I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them” – Qu’ran, 8:12

“And fight with them until there is no more fitna (disorder, unbelief) and religion should be only for Allah” – Qu’ran,8:39

“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, even if they are of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” – Qu’ran 9:29

This week’s winning essay,Joshuapundit’s Why The West Is Doomed… is my reflection on recent events in Paris and elsewhere, the response of our political elites, the inherent danger in referring to rthe Paris attacks as ‘terrorism’ and what must be done in order to change course. Here’s a slice:

Unless we make a major corrections and entirely change direction, what happened in Paris is just the beginning of the end, and the West is headed for horrendous consequences and perhaps even defeat.

It’s been just a few days since the atrocity in Paris, and the response to it has been similar to other jihadist attacks. They range from the usual suspects actually excusing the brutality and talking about how it has nothing to do with Islam ala’ Mrs. Clinton to misdirected remarks for ‘action’ that resemble nothing so much as the old carny game of whack-a-mole, this time with ISIS as the target d’jour.

Walk with me awhile and let’s examine the real problems we face, along with what’s really involved in solving them. I guarantee you won’t be bored. I haven’t seen much real analysis anywhere on how to actually win this conflict for obvious reasons,because they involve dealing with some uncomfortable realities. Here’s a small spoiler preview…ISIS is neither the main problem nor even the main target.

From the first, we were lied to. According to President George W. Bush post 9/11, we were fighting a war on ‘terrorism’. To President Obama and Mrs. Clinton, we’re at war with ‘extremism.’ They all have their own reasons for misdirecting the American people, most of which have nothing to do with either the good of the United States or making any real progress in actually winning the conflict against the faux target they’ve created.

We’re in a war, all right. And ISIS is just one of the players.It’s high time we realized that rather than an ISIS problem, we have a major problem with Islam..in particular, with Islamic fascism and its adherents.And even worse, we have problems that could very well doom civilization and freedom as we know it if we continue along the present course.

The idea that we’re fighting ‘terrorism’ or ‘extremism’ is especially ludicrous and using the terms are a gross insult to our collective intelligence. ‘Extremism’ is a vague, dubious and deliberately subjective term designed to cloak reality in fog, and ‘terrorism,’ after all, is a common tactic of war, designed for one purpose and one purpose only – to erode an enemy’s desire and ability to make war.

In the Middle Ages, a common tactic of waging war was to try to destroy the wealth of an enemy and its ability to support warfare by sacking towns and farmlands. Another example more familiar to Americans was General William T. Sherman’s March To The Sea through the most productive part of the Confederacy, leaving a swath of destruction and desolation in their path. They burned Atlanta and other cities and towns to the ground, destroyed not only military targets but civilian property and infrastructure, and lived off the land by ‘foraging,’ which essentially meant stealing whatever they found and leaving the civilians with a bare minimum to survive on if they were fortunate.The idea was to end the war by degrading the South’s ability and will to fight, and it was very successful in that regard.

We are not only fighting armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war, as well as their organized armies. I know that this recent movement of mine through Georgia has had a wonderful effect in this respect. Thousands who had been deceived by their lying papers into the belief that we were being whipped all the time, realized the truth, and have no appetite for a repetition of the same experience. – General Sherman in a report to Union Chief Of Staff General Henry Halleck, December, 1864.

Similar tactics were used in both world wars by both sides for similar reasons.

French President Hollande was entirely correct that the attack on Paris was an act of war, but it was not ‘terrorism’ or mindless carnage to no purpose. After all, France has been committing acts of war against ISIS by flying 200 air support missions against both combatants and civilians in ISIS territory since September of 2014.

The tactical idea involved also made sense – to remind the West that their cities and their civilians are also vulnerable and can be reached by ISIS.

Every master of strategic thinking whether its Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, General MacArthur or Napoleon has shared certain basic principles in common. They’ve all agreed that in order to successfully wage and win a war, you must have clear goals, know whom your enemy is and secure your base. To that, I’d add utilizing effective leadership and motivated forces.

Not only is the West not doing any of these things, it’s doing its best to do the exact opposite. To really get perspective on that, let’s look at how ISIS and other jihadist entities, both Sunni and Shi’ite are waging their war against us as opposed to how we’re doing whatever it is we’ve been doing for the past decade and a half or so.

They have secured their bases, and there’s little or no fifth column within. Anyone they even suspect of betrayal or less than full commitment to victory is immediately and ruthlessly dealt with. Both their enemies and their goals are clearly defined and marked out with formal declarations of war after the Islamic tradition, which both Osama bin-Laden and ISIS adhered to. On the Shi’ite side, Iran makes no secret of their hostility to us. They want death to America and President Obama is helping them get the tools for the job.

ISIS leaders and their fighters are dedicated, brave and more than prepared to fight and die for Allah and the Caliphate. The Paris attacks were carried out by young fighters willing to give their lives to accomplish their mission. So were their successful attacks on Iraqi forces who on paper outnumbered them and were far better equipped, courtesy of the American taxpayer.

In contrast, our leaders resort to the most tortuous euphemisms to avoid actually mentioning our real enemy or even establishing more than the most vague and general goals. Unlike al-Qaeda in it’s heyday, The Muslim Brotherhood, The Taliban, Hizb’ al-Tahrir and ISIS, there’s no declaration of war by us and no defining of whom or what we’re fighting at all.

Not only have they not secured our base, but our current leadership has actually enabled the breaching of those bases, encouraging mass migration from questionable Muslim countries where Islamism and jihadist thought are quite popular.

As a result of that migration and in particular America’s tolerance and even appeasement of Saudi and Emirate funded Muslim Brotherhood front groups like CAIR, The North American Islamic Trust, The Muslim Public Affairs Counsel, The Islamic Society Of North America and others, a fifth column in America is rampant. Not only are young Muslims radicalized in mosques and madrassahs here by radical imams, but jihadist web sites and platforms like al-Jazeerah, or Jihad TV as I call it are readily accessible.

As opposed to the militaries of our opponents in this war, our severely scaled back forces have seen much of their best combat leaders and experienced combat troops forced into retirement or out of the service to make way for a military that appears to be far more concerned with transgender rights, ‘diversity’ and placing women in combat roles regardless of whether they meet physical requirements to do so than concentrating on defeating our enemies. Retention is at an all time low. And as for faith, even mentioning G-d is likely to get you reprimanded or even bounced out of the service – unless of course, you’re talking aggressively about Islam’s ultimate victory over the Infidels and putting ‘Soldier of Allah’ on your official business card like Major Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood murderer did.

Finally, our lack of decisive leadership speaks for itself. We have no strategy and no clear goals and we haven’t for years. President Obama isn’t even following the old rule of ‘at the very least, do no harm.’ His destabilizing the Middle East and paving the way for Iranian nuclear weapons is a nightmare his successors in office as well as the American people will have to face and it will not be pretty.

Again – and I can’t emphasize this enough – we are in a war with Islamic fascism, and it’s supporter are far from being as much of a minority as certain people would lead you to believe. And yes, is does have everything to do with Islam. There is nothing Boko Haram, Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, the Taliban, Hizb’ al Tarir, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Iranian regime or any of the other so-called ‘extremists’ are doing that is not sanctioned by the Qu’ran. Nothing.

That, by the way is very different from being in a war with Muslims. Many of them are decent and peaceful people. But Islam itself is not going to be reformed. It is a violent religion that brutalizes women and non-believers and was designed for world conquest. As Mohammed told his followers before he died in 632 CE, they are commanded to fight the infidels until they died, became Muslims or paid massive protection money or other tribute for their lives to Muslims and “felt themselves subdued.”

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. and every Tuesday morning, when we reveal the weeks’ nominees for Weasel of the Week!

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.

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